Monday, December 20, 2010

This Adorable and Savvy Holiday Cookie Decorating party comes from Stephanie, a good friend of ours who wanted to get her daughter and her new school friends together for a fun afternoon of Holiday decorating, giggles and many memories to come. Stephanie did a great job at keeping things Savvy and Stylish.

She created a fun Holiday Winter themed table with all the trimmings! We love how she made the centerpiece of the table using a glass cake stand with coordinating colored cookie cutters and Christmas photo props on sticks in a tinsel filled vase.

Each girl had her own place setting which included scrapbook paper place mats and festive snowman plates that were purchased at Michales craft store. There were also wooden ornaments at each setting that Stephanie purchased at Jo-Anns for .39 each and added the initals herself using her Cricut.

Decorating was made easy for the girls with sandwich bags filled with their own icing and tied with a sweet ribbon for detail.

Our favorite part about this day were the super fun and creative photo props she made for the girls to be silly with! Stephanie simply cut out Santa hats, Santa beards, Antlers and Rudolph noses and glued them on sticks and VIOLA! cuteness on a stick!

Stephanie did such an amazing job at creating such great memories for her daughter and her friends. We loved all the Savvy touches and look forward to seeing more!!! Thank You Stephanie!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Pack your skis and Snowboards and get ready to play,Come and enjoy our Savvy "Snow Day".

Be sure you dress warm in all your snow gear.

As we celebrate the ending of another year.

In Southern Ca it does not snow.

We wish it did (but just for a day or two).

So for our Annual Christmas Party we decided to throw a CA Snow Day.

In Savvy Style we used things we had around the house.

TomKat'sTweet Holiday Collectionwas the perfect Printable Collection for the Snow Day. Kim is so Fabulous she even customized the labels for us.

Our buddy Jason recently started a Photography business and captured the Savvy Snow Stylings for us. Thanks J~

The treats were all Snow themed. KolbyKakesbaked a ridiculously delicious and ADORABLE Snow Man cake. Scrapbook paper cones filled with popcorn served as Snow Cones, and Chocolate Mini donuts as tubes.

Pretzels Dipped in White Chocolate with snowflake Sprinkles were our Ski Poles, and Nutter Butters with chocolate tips were our Snow Shoes. No Snow Day is complete without snowflakes, our were individually designed cookies by KolbyKakes.

Do you know how much Snow Costs?

In CA a lot.......

So we created our own Savvy Style Snow.

50+ balloons and Some Shredded Paper made for a fun time.

All of the kiddos had a blast playing in our Savvy Snow (and they were toastie warm). All you could hear was laughter as they would throw the balloons in air pretending it was snowing. Who knew $4 worth of Balloons could be so much fun.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

We were all smiles when we read this fun little Blog Post from Stacy of InkSpot Workshop.

Loved it so much we wanted to share it with you.

And we wanted to share the Savvy Savings Stacy is offering on the Collection.

Enjoy the read and the "Special" Savings!

You can just imagine how excited I was when the dynamic duo behind The Savvy Mom's Guide (Amy & Bri) asked me to send them some goodies from InkSpot Workshop's Christmas Lights collection. They were gearing up for a very Merry & Brightplay date. As a designer, you always want to see your creations brought to life, or to "light" in this case:) Not to mention after reading both of their bios on their blog, I instantly felt connected with them. We all come from a corporate past and now get to do what we L♥VE for a living.

Amy and Bri put together these most uniquely adorable "Play Dates" and really set the bar high for us "other" moms (who are slackers and barely get the kids popcorn while having a play date) Actually these little parties are super inspiring and they bring us so many creative ideas and resources. I don't know about you, but I am super excited to see what The Savvy Mom's Guide has on deck for 2011!

We wanted to create a Bright and Cheery feel for the day.To keep the styling simple since the colors were so Bright and Vibrant on the Printables.

We were thrilled when we found a Christmas Light Collection in the Dollar Bins at Target. From the collection of ribbon, wrapping supplies and paper goods we decided we only needed to purchase 2 Large gift Bags.

From the gift bags we created 4 Place mats, 3 tray inserts and 2 ribbon trim accent pieces for the wrapped boxes we used as risers.

The details of the table came together quickly and with minimal cost. We purchased 2 Rosemary trees from which we strung the printables and our Dough-a-DeerDoughnuts. This was a perfect focal point for the table and a fun and festive way to spread some cheer.

The Printable Collection really was the Inspiration for the entire day. We took our Chair Ribbons from our Gingerbread Play Partyand re-purposed them for this Merry and Bright Event. In keeping with the idea of stringing joy we wrapped 4 C7 Bulbs with twine and dressed up the Chalkboard (super cute right!).

For the Food we treated our guests to YUMMY Dough-a-Deer doughnuts. They were so pretty. The perfect touch to our Merry Day. As always we provided a healthy snack of Jello Christmas Trees and Pineapple Stars. In Savvy Spirit we whipped up some Light Bulb Cookies by dipping Nutter Butters in colored Wilton Candy Melts (we definitely are not Kolby Kakes).

The total cost of the day was $27....Super Savvy for this Seasonal Shindig!!!

Sorry E...those are not lollies they are Printable Toppers.

The day was so Merry and Bight even our Littlest Guests wanted to take part in the fun.

So glad Ella B was there to capture all of the HoHoHo's and Jolly happenings.

We hope you have a Merry Little Christmas filled with Bright Savvy Stylings.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

While at Costco the other day I found myself (Amy) in the Bakery section, starving (which by the way is not a good combo!!) and saw a box of madeleines sitting there calling my name. Without hesitating I put them in my cart and then had a great idea! I needed (well, wanted) to make a platter of cookies to take to my daughter's school for her 'Happy Birthday Jesus' party. I wanted to try something new, so I thought they would be pretty dipped in white chocolate and sprinkled with peppermint (I must have had my white chocolate peppermint mocha from Starbucks on my mind). So here is what I came up with. This was super easy and they did turn out really pretty! Enjoy!

Ingredients~

Vanilla or Chocolate CandiQuick (or any type of meltable chocolate)

Peppermint Candies

Madeleines

If you are local to Southern California, Stater Bros carries this meltable candy in vanilla and chocolate and works well with any type of dipping!

I used half of the candy in the package since I was not making alot of cookies. I placed it in the microwave for 1 minute, stirred with a wooden spoon and re-heated for another 10 seconds. Be careful not to heat to long as it can burn. Another option is placing it in a Crock Pot for serious Holiday baking and dipping!

Here are the Madeleines I found at Costco. You can also bake them from scratch if you have the time, here is a great recipe I found at Allrecipes.com

Unwrap your candy peppermints and place in a food processor(The smell is FANTASTIC!!)

Dip your Madeleines half way or completely and place on a cookie sheet lined with some parchment paper. Sprinkle right away with your crushed Peppermint candy and let them dry.

Set them on a pretty tray and you have got one delicious Holiday treat!

Monday, December 13, 2010

A wreath can say so much, especially around the holidays. A wreath on your front door can be the first greeting that welcomes your friends and family into your home and really says so much about you. But why stop there? When it comes to decorating around the holidays in my house (Amy) I like to dress up a chandelier and many of the windows in my home with wreaths.

Martha Stewart

You can find a wreath in just about every style these days. And making them can be just as savvy when it comes to being creative with your materials. Here are a few DIY ideas that we found to help inspire even the least savviest person!!! Many of these ideas are made from materials you may have around your home.

Of course Martha Stewart comes to mind when looking for the craftiest, stylish, and savviest inspirational wreaths. Here, Martha has simply glued plain white boxes on top of each other and added some pretty ribbon. The great thing about this one is you can add the ribbon color of your choice to compliment your own decor.

Martha StewartHow great is this gingerbread man wreath?? So sweet and so simple! Gingerbread cookies, hot glue and some ribbon and viola a creative twist to the traditional favorite.

www.myhomeideas.comLove this idea too! A wreath that is multi-functional. One that is stylish and fills your home with the sweet smell of cinnamon.

Since we are always looking for ways to keep the kiddos busy, here are couple of great ideas fromSweet Paulto do with your kiddos this season. Grab a bag of popcorn and a bowl or two of candy and create some fun memories that will hang in your home for years to come.

Hi there I am Elizabeth! Thanks so much for letting me stop by to say Hello. Hope you will all come and visit me at Sew Chattywhere I "chat" about lots of things from the happenings of my little family, my shop, everyday life stuff,and how I manage to keep sane in the midst of all the chaos! I am blessed to live in sunny southern CA, be married to an awesome guy and have a super fun little boy! I have been sewing for the last 7 years and I'm having an absolute blast! I hope you find something here that you absolutely love!

Hi, I am Danielle. Thank You for allowing me to come say hello and share Inviting Style Designs with you all. I love creating handmade items for life's special occasions-baby books, pregnancy journal, wedding planners, bridal books and more. My Books are completely custom to your needs. I take the utmost care to ensure you are getting a top quality product that you will enjoy.